In+Stanzas+on+Freedom+and+Free+Labor+the+authors+use+symbols+to+impact+the+protest+poetry+of+the+time.

__Thesis__:

In //stanzas on Freedom and Free Labor// the authors use symbols to impact the protest poetry of that time.

Why are the poems **protest poetry**?

Both poems are protest poetry because they are written to persuade the readers to support a certain cause. Most poems are written to express personal emotions or feelings, but in protest poetry the purpose is persuasion. In both poems the authors stress their protest against slavery because they want to be free.

A **Symbol** is a person, place, object, or activity that has a concrete meaning and also stands for something else. Interpreting them is key to understating the poem.


 * Protest poetry** is to persuade the reader of something.

Lowell uses the word “chains”, as a symbol to express how slaves are not free.


 * (literal)** Chains could refer to literally being chained to the land that they work on and being chained to the master they serve.


 * (metaphor)** The author could also be using “chains” as being metaphorically chained because of their lack of freedom.

Either way, James Lowell is illustrating the feeling of being chained down as a slave because they don’t have freedom whether they’re chained down metaphorically of physically.

How does the symbol illustrate his point? By using this symbol, Lowell shows the reader how painful it is to be in these “chains” (metaphorically and/or physically)

The reader knows that being in chains means that you’re tied down and barely move, which basically means you have no freedom. By using this symbol, the author reaches out to the reader’s knowledge of chains and forces them to compare literal chains to the invisible chains of “no-freedom”! Also by illustrating the point so harshly, it pulls the reader in to support Lowell’s cause, therefore fulfilling the purpose of protest poetry.

Also the author addresses men and women separately which really reaches out to the reader and grabs their attention.

Free labor- symbol is clothing. Herper says that people should stand up for their right to be free.

-The clothing on her back (slavery) is too light to wear around, and it is too much of a burden, so she should stand up for her right to be free.

The author is trying to persuade the reader that they have a right to be free.